Showing results by publisher "Audible Originals" in Science & Engineering

The sun sinks over the Rio Grande, the mountains around it glow orange, and the world slows down. The Mexican free-tailed bats inside the Jornada Cave are just starting to stretch and murmur. In this episode, we visit the nursery where all the baby bats stay together, and we accompany a new mother as she journeys into the sky with the rest of her crew for a night of hunting bugs via echolocation.

In the misty Puerto Rican El Yunque rainforest, coquí frogs no larger than your thumb fill the air with their distinctive two-note song: “co-quí, co-quí.” They alternate routines—one night singing to attract potential mates, the next hunting to fuel up for tomorrow’s performance. In this episode, we follow a singer and a hunter amid the vibrant nighttime chorus.

Two long-term friends explore despair, optimism and hope in the face of environmental change. Cate and Danny return with Season 2 of the acclaimed series Climate of Change where they interview guests along the way, discussing the challenges humankind faces and celebrate the ground-breaking work tackling the crisis.

Some disasters arrive all of a sudden: a wave, a quake, a raging fire. Others are slow-moving, even subtle.

Capybaras possess such a calm and gentle nature that many other animal species treat them as friends—including the birds who ride on their backs. In this episode, we follow a capybara as she lounges in the lagoon and covers herself in mud to repel bugs. And we’ll listen as she collectively parents her pups with the others in her herd, communicating through a complex language of whistles, clicks, and purrs.

We’ve been celebrating Earth Day for 50 years, but even the most ardent activists of today would have a hard time picturing the intensity and excitement the first Earth Day in 1970 brought. Before then, no one used the phrase “environmental movement”. But that first Earth Day sparked an unprecedented conversation about pollution, wilderness protection, sprawl, and more. Join Adam Rome, professor of Environment and Sustainability at the University of Buffalo, as he uncovers the motivation for, and the lasting impact of, a national day devoted to environmental awareness.

Athena Aktipis of Arizona State University is a self-professed apocalypse enthusiast, and as the host of the podcast Zombified, she knows the undead inside and out. With Zombified: Real-World Lessons from Fictional Apocalypses, she’s compiled her research and insights into a fascinating Audible Original that will have you thinking deeper about all those shambling, brain-hungry corpses in pop culture—not to mention our everyday lives. Drawing on years of research on zombies and zombification, these six lessons offer a fun way to explore and understand the many forces that influence us.

Red pandas have thick bushy ringed tails like raccoons, but they aren’t related to panda bears or raccoons—in fact, they have no close relatives anywhere on Earth. In this episode, we wander the Himalayas with a red panda and her cubs as they munch on bamboo, practice walking in the treetops, and settle in to nap together as the first snowfall of the year covers their forest home.

Against the white expanse of the Arctic tundra, a snowy owl is hardly visible as he pauses to listen for the rustling of small prey. While most Arctic birds migrate south for the winter, this owl can survive through the endless polar nights. In this episode, we follow a snowy owl as he searches for food in the dark, soaring past the footprints of polar bears, howling huskies, and snow foxes that call this wintry world home.

Axolotls are nature's ultimate Peter Pan—amphibians that never transform past the larval stage. Found only in Mexico’s ancient lake system of Xochimilco, they've survived since the time of the Aztecs, a people who considered them sacred. In this episode, we glide through the cool, dark water with an axolotl, meandering through the floating gardens these charming creatures call home.

California’s coast redwoods are Earth's tallest living beings, some reaching more than 350 feet high. They can also live for more than 2,000 years, outlasting entire civilizations. In this episode, we spend an evening with an ancient tree. Below ground, its roots tap into a forest-wide network; above ground, its branches harbor life in its many forms.

At the southernmost tip of South Africa, where fresh and salt water collide, a tiny seahorse appears to levitate. Seahorses are the ocean’s slowest swimmers, but they have one of the world’s fastest muscle contractions, using it to suction up their prey. In this episode, we meander through eelgrass with a male Knysna seahorse as he twines tails with his partner, changes color to match the sand, and even gives birth to a brood of tiny seahorses.

Sixty years ago in the snowy valleys of Japan, a young snow monkey discovered a hotel’s hot spring, and others in her troop soon joined her. Now, generations of families have built their routines around their own hot springs. In this episode, we follow a young snow monkey as her troop leaps from rock to rock toward their favorite activity in winter: a long steamy soak.

In a quiet forest in Sweden, a cluster of Amanita muscaria mushrooms, with their iconic red caps dotted with white spots, push through a bed of soft reindeer moss. These crimson fungi interact with all manner of species in the forest—including a squirrel, who takes a nibble and wanders away in an altered state. These enchanted mushrooms also form partnerships with the trees, trading nutrients under the soil.

Alcune storie sono troppo assurde per non essere raccontate, come l'epico scontro Alessandro Volta VS Luigi Galvani, tra rane morte ed energia elettrica che ha ispirato la nascita del mostro di Frankenstein. O ancora Stephen Hawking e quella sua fissa per i buchi neri, Margherita Hack che pedalava verso l'osservatorio tra le bombe della seconda guerra mondiale, Richard Feynman che scassinava casseforti durante il progetto Manhattan, Lord Kelvin il barone della morte termica dell'Universo, Enrico Fermi che ha scisso l'atomo e dato il via all'era nucleare.

Tief unter unseren Füßen – was ist da eigentlich los? Um diese intimsten Geheimnisse unseres Heimatplaneten herauszufinden, brauchen wir natürlich wieder Physik.

Möchten Sie beim Podcasthören entspannen? Oder vielleicht lieber ungewöhnliche Welten erleben und Neues lernen? Kein Problem, in Wissen unterm Kissen bekommen Sie beides - jetzt schon in der zweiten Staffel! Kommen Sie wieder mit uns auf Expeditionen durch Welt und All. Viel Spaß und: Schlafen Sie schlau.

What happens when your family tells you one thing, but a DNA test tells you another? Georgina Lawton grew up in a loving family but she didn’t look like anyone else. She has dark eyes, curly hair and brown skin. Both her parents were white. Georgina took a DNA test. The results changed her life forever. With millions around the world using 'do-it-yourself' DNA testing kits, Georgina follows the stories of those learning to live with the results.

In the movies, robots can be terrifying. In reality, thinking machines are disrupting the world in ways that are even more disturbing than in Hollywood fantasies - but they also have the potential to change our lives for the better. In this stirring, visionary work, acclaimed roboticist Dr. Ayanna Howard explores how the tech world’s racial and sexual biases are infecting the next generation of Artificial Intelligence, with profoundly negative effects for humans of all genders and races.

In The Enduring Genius of Frederick Law Olmsted, you’ll learn about the iconic landscape architect’s incredible life—and ponder his incredible legacy. You’ll explore his work as a designer of some breathtaking natural landscapes (as well as some of the painful failures he had to endure along the way). You’ll also consider Olmsted’s efforts to address the momentous challenges of his century, including the Civil War, and the vital role he played in the most transformative period in American history.